Voice over Internet Protocol, or “VoIP” for short, has become a force to be reckoned with in the technology world, and with good reason: It provides reliable, cheap (or free) calling for homes and businesses alike. But it wasn’t always that way, so it’s fitting that those with the vision and foresight to see what it could provide will be sharing their insights at this week’s ITEXPO show in Miami.

Running Tuesday through Friday, ITEXPO is the leading business technology event that brings together IT professionals and experts to explore the latest technology and trends in VoIP, M2M, SDN, cloud, WebRTC, unified communications and much more. And it’s worth noting that it began 17 years ago with an early-stage version of VoIP.

As such, the panel of distinguished leaders and visionaries are scheduled to be part of a “20 Years of VoIP” panel which will explore the innovation VoIP has spawned. The discussion will be led by ITEXPO conference chairman Rich Tehrani (News - Alert), and will include many of the innovators and visionaries that literally started the industry two decades ago. Among those scheduled to appear are:

Andy Abramson, Comunicano, Inc., CEO and Founder, who launched one of the first blogs on the IP communications market;

Alon Cohen (News - Alert), Phone.com, EVP and CTO, who was responsible for developing the first commercial VoIP software at VocalTec;

Jeff Pulver, Zula CEO and founder of Vonage (News - Alert) and the VON Conference, famous for a number of things, including launching the VON trade shows;

Michael Tribolet, YIPTV, CEO and Founder; who was VP of Operations at DialPad, the President of Vonage and the Chief Business Officer at magicJack VocalTec;

Andy Voss, Sansay (News - Alert), President/CEO, who, along with his company Nuera Communications, were both leaders in the voice over frame relay space, before VoIP ever existed. Today, Sansay is a market leader in SBCs;

Craig Walker, Switch Communications, Founder & CEO; who is the man behind Dialpad Communications, the dot-com sensation, as well as GrandCentral Communications and UberConference;

Danny Windham, President of Adtran for 17 years and the current CEO of Digium (News - Alert) – the company behind the open-source communications platform known as Asterisk.

“You can’t do justice to a panel like this with words – these people truly changed the world of not only communications but technology,” Tehrani said in a statement. “SIP trunking is saving companies billions of dollars because IP communications was developed. Free video on your phone and computer are thanks to the developments made in this industry. The flexible systems which allow phone calls to follow us around today are also thanks to many of the accomplishments of the people on this list and others.”

The “20 Years of VoIP” panel takes place Wednesday, January 28th at 10:00 a.m. (EST).

For more on all the latest technology and trends happenings, be sure to register to attend ITEXPO, the business technology event that brings together service providers, enterprises, government agencies, resellers, vendors and developers to demo, discuss and network all the latest innovations changing the marketplace. ITEXPO is being held January 27-30, 2015, at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami, Florida.   Stay in touch with everything happening at the event -- follow us on Twitter.